Childcare costs are exorbitant. They have gotten so high that many parents are choosing not to work to care for their children. A study by a mortgage company, Lending Tree found that Oregon has the 9th-highest percentage of parents forgoing work to care for their children.
They scraped data from the U.S. Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey to uncover why parents are leaving the workforce. And, they identified the number of parents who have left their jobs to care for their children and the states with the highest percentage of parents who forgo work to care for their kids. Here’s a look at what we found:
- Oregon has the 9th-highest percentage of parents forgoing work to care for their kids. In Oregon, 13.3% of nonretired adults out of the workforce cite caring for kids as the reason. Of the 660,913 residents who aren’t working, 87,944 say they don’t work to care for their children.
- Utahans are the most likely to forgo working to care for kids. In the Beehive State, 26.6% of nonretired adults out of the workforce say the reason is to care for kids.
- Nationwide, 10.7% of American adults out of the workforce say they aren’t working because they’re caring for kids. This figure rises to 16.4% among those whose highest degree is a bachelor’s, versus 10.8% among those with some high school education.
- 20.7% of the parents who work but don’t have childcare arrangements, have had to leave a job to care for children, and 20.1% didn’t look for a job because they had to care for their kids. 35.2% report using paid time off to care for children, while 34.0% report cutting hours, and 30.1% report taking unpaid time off.
To see the full study, click here.
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